Backstage-America's greatest film poet

Robert Flaherty (1884-1951) is considered the "father" of documentaries. He is best known for his Nanook of the North (1920/1922) on the life of an Eskimo/Inuit and his family. The barren Aran Islands are three naked wastes of rock around 50km off Galway City, to the west coast of Ireland - they are actually the westernmost point of Europe. The biggest of the three islands is Inishmore and it is only 12km long. The cliffs are up to 200m high and still waves will breach them.

The people make soil out of seaweed to support their meager seasonal crops and hunt sharks when the sea permits.